SDI and Star Wars Flashcards
1
Q
when?
A
1983
2
Q
who?
A
ronald reagan
3
Q
why?
A
- motivate US defence
- eradiaction of communism; regan speaks of it as as a diesase
4
Q
what?
A
strategic defense initiative (or star wars)
-aimed to set up space-based missile system and can intercept and destroy missiles before teach US
5
Q
soviet response
A
- upset them
- undermine the ‘assured dstruction’ required for MAD and gives US first strike capbaility
- new nuclear tech; soviets cant compete
- threat of SDI; some historians say that it led to the arms talk between gorbachev and reagan
